About me

Hi! My name is Diane Rustand. I\'m 62 years young and have had chronic pain of one type or another since the age of 25. Early in my nursing career I was introduced to \"back pain\".  I thought my pain was severe until I had surgery to supposedly fix the problem.

The second chronic condition I suffered with came from the \"Cavernous Hemangioma\" on my right hip, a condition I was born with. Every few years since the age of 10, I had surgery to thin out the tumor. Finally, at the age of 31, I had a procedure that closed off the existing blood supply.

The tumor, with a mind of its own, wrapped itself around the sciatic nerve on the right side, making it impossible to walk. I was non-weight bearing on the right side and took pain medicine to live as normally as possible.

In December 1993, I was riding my Palomino gelding in a pasture. I had only owned this horse for two weeks. As I was teaching a young lady to ride, my horse got spooked and bolted into a gallop. I decided to get off before the horse stopped short, and I sailed over his head.

The fall resulted in a broken neck, specifically a lateral mass fracture at C5, a vertebral fracture at C6, and C7 was subluxed or jammed on top of C6. (Incidentally, I also sustained a T4 fracture). Surgery was done to fix the neck fractures; however, I still had to wear the Halo apparatus due to the T4 fracture.

A few months after this surgery, I had arthroscopic shoulder surgery. The shoulder pain was so severe, I had trouble sleeping. One day, I woke up and could hardly move. There were points across my hips and neck that were so sore, all I could do was lay on the couch and sleep. The next thing I know I\'m seeing a Rheumatologist, who diagnoses the pain in my back, and neck as fibromyalgia. How many more chronic pain issues can one person have?

Today, I have back and neck pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, and Lyme disease. You will be talking to and learning from a coach with years of practical experience.

 A year ago, I found out from a Chiropractor that my left leg is shorter than my right one. If that had been known when I first hurt my back, I may not have opted for back surgery. Also, If I had followed my Neurosurgeon\'s orders after the surgery, my back pain might have gone away. Instead of resting the entire two months, I went back to work against the surgeon\'s wishes. The pain I felt was worse than before the surgery.

The pain was so severe, the surgeon sent me to a rehabilitation center in Chicago. There I learned, after several injections of local anesthetic and cortisone, that I had scar tissue wrapped around my spinal cord from the first Lumbar vertebrae to the first Sacral vertebrae. No wonder I had so much pain.

Once the doctors diagnosed the reason I was having so much pain, validated. Now, I could do something about it. I had to take care of myself physically, psychologically, and emotionally and that\'s what I did. That\'s what everyone with chronic pain has to do.